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The power of God and the wisdom of God are in it. And it is time for the church to take up this heroic note and sound it forth with new power. This is the new evangelism for which the world is waiting.
Christian nurture a continuous process in which development is the key-note, not conversion, a sudden transformation, a terrible wrenching of the whole being, is the church's present method of growth. Oh! the old has not entirely gone here and there we occasionally see evidences of its presence. Professional evangelism we call it to-day. I ran across it in a recent trip East.
He left the church of his fathers and devoted his distinguished gifts to the work of evangelism. In connection with his conversion, a pathetic incident occurred. A superstitious Italian mother will sometimes hang a charm around her boy's neck to drive away malignant powers. When Gavazzi was but a baby, his mother placed a locket on his breast, and he never moved without it.
Evangelism is becoming more and more detached from organized denominations, and the denominational lines are being ignored in a way that would have astonished the people of a century ago. Numerous attempts are being made to unite the various denominations on the mission fields and in the homeland. Ecclesiasticism, however, dies hard. In fact, it is scarcely correct to say that it will die at all.
The writer has had the privilege of preaching in churches of different denominations in the work of special evangelism, but never has he known the falling of Pentecostal fire to fail to burn up sectarianism. It is no easy matter to find out from the preaching of our holiness preachers under what denominational flag they sail.
It is not a call to be "carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease;" it is not an invitation to the sentimental soul to "sit and sing herself away to everlasting bliss;" it is the clarion of battle; it is the challenge to an enterprise which means struggle and suffering and self-denial. The redemption of society is the objective of the new evangelism.
It was not long before they collected in congregations; and while the "licensed" exhorter, who really "preached many things to the people in his exhortations," always led the meetings, the real exhorter followed with cutting appeals. This destitute region was thus visited occasionally for several years, and this couple had the honor of being its successful pioneers in Christian evangelism.
In the process, because His Spirit is in us, men will know that they have seen Jesus. Thus we may come to understand the life of the people of God, and to find therein a basis for a true evangelism; and thus we may participate in the life and teaching of Christ, which are at once our ideal and pattern of living, and at the same time our judgment. Participation in the Crucifixion
We are not going to wait another thousand years for our millennium; we are going to have it here and now. This is the gospel of the new evangelism which it has taken the church a long time to learn, but which she is now getting ready to proclaim with demonstration of the spirit and with power.
No other explanation is adequate for the dark ages of Church history, the appalling failure of the Church in world-wide evangelism, or her present sectarian divisions and selfish indifference. This blighting Satanic opposition can be detected in every effort for the salvation of the lost.
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